The two sample wedding ceremonies below are just an example of how you can make your commitment to your other half. I will perform any ceremony of your choice, so you can edit an existing ceremony or create your own! Your ceremony is your choice, and I, as the Wedding Rebel minister support you to create and edit your ceremony so it's exactly the way you want it! The possibilities are endless...

 

SAMPLE WEDDING CEREMONY

Name and Name, Place, Island of O’ahu, Maui, Hawai’i, Moloka’i , Lana’i, or Kaua’i. Carrie Ginnane, Minister

 

Sample ceremony taken (with permission) from Neale Donald Walsh’s book, Conversations with God:

 

Minister: _________ & __________ have not come here tonight to make a solemn promise or to exchange a sacred vow. _____& _____ have come here to make public their love for each other; to give notice to their truth; to declare their choice to live and partner and grow together- out loud and in your presence, out of their desire that we will all come to feel a very real and intimate part of their decision, and thus make it even more powerful.

 

They’ve also come here tonight in the further hope that their ritual bonding will help bring us all closer together. If you are here tonight with a spouse or a partner, let this ceremony be a reminder- a rededication of your own loving bond. We’ll begin by asking the question: Why get married? __& __ have answered this question for themselves, and they’ve told me their answer. Now I want to ask them one more time, so they can be sure of their answer, certain of their understanding, and firm in their commitment to the truth they share.

 

(Minister gets 2 red roses from the table…)

 

This is the ceremony of the roses, in which __& __ share their understandings, and commemorate that sharing. Now, ___&___ you told me it is your firm understanding that you are not entering into this marriage for reasons of security…

 

… that the only real security is not in owning or possessing, nor is being owned or possessed…

 

… not in demanding or expecting, and not even in hoping, that what you think you need in life will be supplied by the other…

 

… but rather, in knowing that everything you need in life.

 

… all the love, all the wisdom, all the insight, all the power, all the knowledge, all the understanding, all the nurturing, all the compassion, and all the strength… resides within you…

 

… and that you are not each marrying the other in hopes of getting these things, but in hopes of giving these gifts, that the other might have them in even greater abundance.

 

Is that your firm understanding tonight? (They say, “It is”)

 

And __&__, you have told me it is your firm understanding you are not entering into this marriage as a means of in any way limiting, controlling, hindering, or restricting each other form any true expression an honest celebration of that which is the highest and best within you- including your love of God, your love of life, your love of people, your love of creativity, your love of work, or any aspect of your being which genuinely represents you, and brings you joy. Is that still your firm understanding tonight?

 

(They say, “It is”).

 

Finally, __&__, you have said to me that you do not see marriage as producing obligations, but rather as providing opportunities…

 

… opportunities for growth? For the full Self- expression, for lifting your lives to their highest potential, for healing every false thought or small idea you ever had about yourself, and for ultimate reunion with God through the communion of your two souls…

 

… that this is truly a Holy Communion… a journey through life with one you love as an equal partner, sharing equally both the authority and the responsibilities inherent in any partnership, bearing equally what burdens there be, basking equally in the glories.

 

Is that the vision you wish to enter into now?

 

(They say, “it is”).

 

I now give you these red roses, symbolizing your individual understandings of these Earthly things; that you both know and agree how life will be with you in bodily form, and within the physical structure called marriage. Give these roses now to each other as a symbol of your sharing of these agreements and understandings with love.

 

Now, please each of you take this white rose. It is a symbol of your larger understandings, of your spiritual nature and your spiritual truth. It stands for the purity of your Real and Highest Self, and of the purity of God’s love, which shines upon you now, and always.

 

(Minister gives ___ the rose with ___’s ring on the stem, and ___ the rose with ___’s ring on it.)

 

What symbols do you bring as a reminder of promises given and received today?

 

(They each remove the rings from the stems, giving them to the minister, who holds them in her hand as she says…)

 

A circle is the symbol of the Sun, and the Earth, and the universe. It is a symbol of holiness, and the perfection and peace. It is also the symbol of the eternity of spiritual truth, love, and life… that which has no beginning and no end. And in this moment, __&__ choose for it to also be a symbol of unity, but not of possession; of joining, but not of restricting; of encirclement, but not of entrapment. For love cannot be possessed, npot can it be restricted. And the soul can never be entrapped.

 

Now __&__, please take these rings you wish to give, one to the other.

 

(They take each other’s rings).

 

____, please repeat after me.

 

“I, ___ … ask you, ___ … to be my partner, my lover, my friend, and my wife… I announce and declare my intention to give you my deepest friendship and love… Not only when your moments are high… but when they are low… not only when you remember clearly Who You Are… but when you forget… Not only when you are acting with love… but when you are not… I further announce… before God and those here present… that I will seek always to see the Light of the Divinity within you… and seek always to share… the Light of Divinity within me… even, and especially… in whatever moments of darkness may come.

 

It is my intention to be with you forever… in a Holy Partnership of the soul… that we may do together God’s work… sharing all that is good within us… with all those whose lives we touch.

 

The minister turns to ___.

 

____, do you choose to grant ____’s request that you be his wife?

 

(She answers, “I do.”)

 

Now, ___, please repeat after me.

 

“I, ___ … ask you, ___ (She makes the same vow).

 

(Minister turns to ____.)

 

____, do you choose to grant _’s request that you be her husband?

 

(He answers; “I do”.)

 

Please then, both of you, take hold of the rings you would give each other, and repeat after me: With this ring… I thee wed… I take now the ring you give to me… (they exchange rings)… and give it place upon my heart…(they place the rings on their hands)… That all may see and know… all of my love for you.

 

(The minister closes…)

 

We recognize with full awareness that only a couple can administer the sacrament of marriage to each other, and only a couple can satisfy it. Neither my church, nor any power vested in me by the State, can grant me the authority to declare what only two hearts can declare, and what only two souls can make real.

 

And so now, inasmuch as you, ___, and you, ____, have announced the truths that are already written in your hearts, and have witnessed the same in the presence of these, your friends, and the One Living Spirit- we observe joyfully that you have declared yourself to be… husband and wife.

 

Let us now join in prayer.

 

Spirit of Love and Life: out of this whole world, two souls have found each other. Their destiny shall now be woven into one design, and their perils and their joys shall not be known apart.

 

__&__, may your home be a place of happiness for all who enter it; a place where the old and the young are renewed in each others company, a place for growing and a place for sharing, a place for music and a place for laughter, a place for prayer and a place for love.

 

May those who are nearest to you be constantly enriched by the beauty and the bounty of your love for one another, may your days be good and long upon the Earth.

 

Amen, and Amen.

 

 

SAMPLE WEDDING CEREMONY II

Name and Name, Place, Island of O’ahu, Maui, Hawai’i, Moloka’i , Lana’i, or Kaua’i. Carrie Ginnane, Minister

 

WORDS OF WELCOME

We have come together to honor and celebrate the sacredness of all life and especially, today, the union of two loving beings, Name and Name. We have gathered to witness and bless the vows which will unite them in marriage. To this moment they bring the fullness of their hearts as a treasure to share with one another. They bring the dreams which bind them together. They bring that spirit which is uniquely their own, and out of which will grow the reality of their life together. We rejoice with them as the outward symbol of an inward union of hearts, a union created by friendship, respect and love. Honoring those who could not be present may be included here.

READINGS Available if desired

MUSIC A song or other music if desired

EXCHANGE OF LEIS: if desired The growing things of the Earth stand with their feet in the soil and with their fragrance rising to Heaven. Name and Name exchange leis as a reminder of their union with the Earth, with the Divine and with each other. Exchange in silence.

VOWS

Let us celebrate the abiding love which exists between these two people, to stand with Name and Name, as they declare their love and the intention to live together joyfully in a sacred covenant. Please join hands. Name, please repeat after me: I, Name, take you Name to be my wedded husband. By the choice of my heart I take you to be the companion of my life. I love you and accept you as you are and as you will become. I, joyful and with faith and tenderness, promise to live with you, to love you and to cherish you from this day forward. Name, please repeat after me: I, Name, take you Name to be my wedded wife. By the choice of my heart I take you to be the companion of my life. I love you and accept you as you are and as you will be come. I, joyful and with faith and tenderness, promise to live with you, to love you and to cherish you from this day forward.

EXCHANGE OF RINGS

These rings are symbols of your love for each other. In wearing them you declare the sacredness of your union. Name, please repeat after me: Name, with this ring I, Name, pledge my love and devotion to you. When you feel this ring on your finger remember that I love you, I’m happy with you. I honor and celebrate our life together. Name, please repeat after me: Name, with this ring, I, Name, pledge my love and devotion to you. When you feel this ring on your finger remember that I love you, I’m happy with you. I honor and celebrate our life together.

PRAYER (Prayer may be omitted and a reading added here if you like.)

Let us pray. Dear God (or Spirit, Holy Spirit, Great Mystery, Father, Mother, etc.), thank you for the gift of love, especially the love that brings us together here today. Thank you for the gift of marriage in which two people become more than they are, because of their relationship to each other. Thank you for the privilege we have to be here and to witness Name and Name¹s love for each other and their commitment to each other. God, help their love, as beautiful as it is, to become even more beautiful and deeper in the days and months and years ahead. I believe you have made us each, as persons, more beautiful than we know or see. Help Name and Name to find that beauty in each other and each within themselves through their life together. Help them deal openly and creatively with life¹s challenges both by speaking and by listening, by being themselves and by making allowance for each other and by seeking together a better way than is open or evident to either one alone. Dear God, may all of us here learn more about love and the power of love to create, to heal and to build a better world. Give to Name and Name the gift of memory for this moment. May they treasure it as it unfolds into the mystery of the future. Amen.  

DECLARATION

Name and Name, you have agreed to enter into this partnership. You have given and pledged your love each to the other. You have declared this love by the exchanging of vows, the giving and receiving of rings and the joining of your hands. Name and Name, through your own declaration I acknowledge you as partners in the journey of life (or husband and wife in the journey of life).